John Deere kids and a funny story

These are some pictures I took this morning. I put Landen in his John Deere shirt first and then remembered that I had a onesie that Adellyn could wear that was Landen's (I thought the pink would help make it look more girly). Then I thought it would be cute to get a picture of them together with their John Deere blankets that Grandma Becker made. I just had a little trouble getting Landen to cooperate. With one grandpa the works for John Deere and the other that uses John Deere on the farm, our kids will have many more pictures like this!

This morning I thought of another funny story to tell about Landen. For some strange reason, he likes to hang out in closets. He goes into either his closet or our closet and closes the door. (they are bi fold doors.) In our closet he plays in the drawers of a plastic storage container and pulls everything out. I bet we find some interesting things in our shoes! This morning he was just sitting on the floor, sucking his thumb and snuggling with his blanky in his closet with the door shut. The funny thing is that there is not much room in his closet because it is stuffed full of clothes, diapers, and a few things in storage. Another thing he does in the closet is knock on the door and waits for you to knock back. We have made a game out of that on about every door in the house. He gets such a kick out of it when you "find" him. Then he'll close the door and hide some more. He has actually thrown fits when I try to get him out.

Our kids are 18 months and 1 month old today!

Click here for pictures.

Adellyn surprised us last Thursday by rolling from her tummy to her back. I had her on the floor for some tummy time and she picked her head up, rolled to her side and pulled her knee up to kick over to her back all in one swift motion like she had been doing it for a while. I thought it was an accident at first, so I put her back on her tummy and she did it again. She has done it several times since. I have never heard of a three week old baby being able to roll over! We have had some long nights here lately. It seems like after 10pm, Adellyn turns into a different baby and she is fussy and not willing to sleep. She has been awake in the evenings so I would think that she would sleep better at night, but when I try to lay her down, she wakes up and starts crying. She nurses like crazy at night, too, which is another reason I would think she would sleep good. I am beginning to think that she might have acid reflux because a couple of nights ago she slept in her papasan seat from 1:30 to 6 (the best 4.5 hours of sleep I've had in a month!). We are going to the doctor on the 23rd, so I am going to ask about it then. On the plus side, Landen is getting better about sleeping through her cries at night and naptime.

Landen has me confused about how he feels about Adellyn. At times he acts like he really loves her. He pats her on the head while I nurse, gives her lots of kisses, tries to share his toys, talks to her (maybe she understand his babbles), and has started acting like he wants to pick her up. Other times he acts like he doesn't want her around anymore. He hits her when he wants my attention and throws toys or his sippy cup at her. He also rocks her in her cradle...sometimes a little too hard. I need to have Elliot figure out how to put a lock on it. He has kind of quit saying new words and even words he used to say. He jabbers on about something quite a bit, but no one can understand a word of it. He has, however, picked up a word that I let slip, so the last couple of days he has been running around saying "oh shit" (it sounds like "sit" or "jit"). I hope it is like other words and he forgets it after a few days. I don't make a big deal about it beacuse he is a typical toddler and will think my reaction to him saying that is funny and it will only encourage him to say it more. Of course Elliot just laughs, so that is encouragement that he doesn't need. When he is old enough to understand and no longer likes to eat soap, we will teach him that he shouldn't say naughty words.

Here's a funny story that happened last week. I was doing something in the kitchen and Landen was in the back room right off the kitchen. He knocked over the step stool and it made a loud noise when it fell. I turned around to see what that was and he looked at me with a worried look on his face and said, "oops, uh oh, OH NO!" (By the way, just last week he started saying "no no"...I can't believe it took him this long as often as he hears it!) He had another similar incident the other day. I had a laundry basket on the bench in front of my dresser (the one he climbs on to get to all of my lotion, make-up, body spray, etc.). He pushed it on the floor like he does when there is something on that bench, but this time the clothes spilled out and made a mess. I came in the room right after he did it and he looked like he was about to break down and start crying and he was saying "oops" and "uh oh." That was the first time he acted like he felt bad about doing something. It about made me cry to see the look on his face, so I picked him up and told him it was ok. Since then, I have gotten that look from him after he knocked over the Christmas tree and after I thump his hand for getting into something he is not supposed to touch. He also has me kiss his hand after I thump it. What a funny kid!

Well, that's all for now, Adellyn is hungry again!

Adjusting to life with 2 kids!

Click here to see pictures.

We have been home for a little over two weeks, I am getting around better and Adellyn is learning how to put up with her big brother. Landen sometimes loves his sister a little too much. He gives her toys, blankets, food and even my shoes! Sometimes these things land on her head, so we seem to yell at Landen a lot. I don't think he is trying to hurt her, he just doesn't understand that she is too little to play with him. Last night we caught him trying to sit in her papasan seat while she was in it. Lately, Landen has been pretty stingy with his kisses, but he will almost always give Adellyn a kiss when we ask, and even when we don't ask. It is so cute to see him try to cuddle up to her, but he usually bonks her head with his in the process and makes her cry, then he kisses her to make it better. She is going to be tough growing up with him!

Adellyn is a typical newborn...eat, sleep, poop. Of course, she sleeps more during the day and is awake more at night, but she is getting better. I was pretty spoiled with Landen because he slept through the night at 6 days old! It also seems like as soon as I put a clean diaper on her, she has a wet fart, and because of that she has a diaper rash that just won't go away. On the plus side, she nurses really well and I did not get sores like I did with Landen. She has really filled out since she was born and she is going to outgrow the newborn diapers soon. She is growing a lot faster than Landen did at that age. We went to the doctor last week for her first well baby check-up. She is up to 8lbs 2oz and 20.25in. long. She had her first shopping experience and we broke her in hard core by shopping on "Black Friday." Unfortunately, I think she got a little too much cold air in her face and she has been a little more fussy the last couple of days. We did make shopping a little easier on us by leaving Landen with my parents. He just stayed the night on Thursday and we picked him up Friday night.

We have been considering starting Landen on potty training. I was going to wait until after Christmas at the earliest, but he has be showing signs that he might be ready. In the last couple of weeks he runs somewhere in the house and pees right after his bath. He has peed in his closet, on the floor on my side of the bed, on the living room floor and who knows where else. We are not going to push anything, we are just going to see what he does if we put him on the toilet after his bath. (We don't even have a potty chair yet.) Some other funny things Landen does...he likes to smell candles, he pushes every button that he can find including starting the dishwasher. He also likes to hide in closets and shut the door, he pulls and pushes doors shut. Sometimes he shuts himself in a room and then knocks on the door as a game. He is getting better about playing with his toys by himself. He has this plastic dump truck that he likes to push around. He has also started to get the hang of building with his blocks.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to be sure to get at least one more update before Christmas.

It's a GIRL!

Click on the link to see pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/sealhoefs/NewAlbum111608452PM#

Adellyn Ruth Hoefs was born on Tuesday November 11 at 8:41 am; 7 lbs 3 oz, 20 in. long. (For those of you who don't know my family, Ruth was my grandma Becker's name and my great-grandma Nickols name) She was born by c-section and Elliot was able to get video of the whole surgery. He stood by my head so you can't see most of the gross stuff, but you can see the important part as they pull her out. I'm not planning on posting the video because it is almost 9 minutes long, but if you want to see it, let me know. (by the way, that 9 minutes felt like an eternity because I was so anxious to find out the sex and to hear that first cry!) My parents had Landen all week so Elliot stayed in the hospital with me. Since we doctor in Norton, I had Elliot work all week so that he could save his time off for this week when I really need him because I can't lift Landen. When my parents and Landen came to see us, Landen reacted about how I expected. My mom picked up Adellyn, and my dad was holding Landen. Mom took Adellyn over to Dad and Landen and he took one look at her, turned away and started shaking his head and fighting to be put down. We kept trying the rest of the evening and we finally got him to kiss her hand. Since then he has gotten better. He kisses her head, giggles at every noise she makes, touches her nose and eyes and holds his cell phone up to her head. He has also thrown things at her and hit her, so we have to watch him closely if he is in the same room as her. It has been a rough week for him, but I think he will be a really good big brother once he gets used to this change. To make things worse, he got a new tooth last week, so that was making him feel sick. He had a really bad runny nose which caused a bad cough and he wasn't sleeping or eating as good as normal. I think part of the problem was that he was home sick and he missed us. Today he acted more like normal than he has since Adellyn was born.

Adellyn is a really good baby. She only cries when she is hungry and she is a good eater. She nurses really well and I have not gotten as sore I did with Landen. She also sleeps really good. She still has days and nights a little mixed up, but it is getting better and she does her binging in the late evening instead of the middle of the night now. I have had her sleep on my chest in the recliner for the two nights we have been home. I did it for two reasons, one; it's too difficult to get up at night with the pain and two; she woke Landen up the first night home and he had to get up and run around and have a snack for a half hour before going back to bed. Right now at 11:30 pm, she is in her cradle sleeping soundly (and like an idiot, I am not sleeping).

I have been doing pretty good. I went more than 24 hours without taking a percoset in the hospital (I only had advil), but since I have been home, I have been taking it as often as possible. I think I am doing too much, but it is hard to see the mess and not do something about it. I still have not been able to unpack my bag completely. It's been harder this time because I have Landen to worry about as well as a newborn. I get my staples out tomorrow (Monday), so hopefully that will help me feel better because I won't have that pulling feeling anymore. I am looking forward to being able to lift Landen again.

I have a great story that will be fun to tell Adellyn when she is older. I was released from the hospital on Friday around 1pm. I had Elliot stop at the pharmacy first so that I could fill my perscription and he wanted to stop at New Age so everyone in the office could see Adellyn. As we pulled into the parking lot, Elliot's phone rang. It was someone from New Age saying that email wasn't working. Elliot thought that it should be a quick fix and that we wouldn't have to stay any longer than we had planned. Well, that wasn't the case. His email server crashed and he couldn't figure out why or how to fix it. An hour later he told me that I could just go home and he would figure out how to get home later. He forgot that I am not allowed to drive. So I called my parents and asked if they could come get me. My mom couldn't becuase Landen was taking a much needed nap, but my dad was able to come down. Luckily, Adellyn was still asleep. I did wake her up before my dad got there because she ate at 11am at the hospital and slept through everything we had done until 2pm. I didn't want her waking up on the way home since it was extremely windy and rainy. We just waited for Elliot at my parents' house so we didn't have to swap vehicles later. He called to tell us he was leaving Norton at 5:20, and we finally got to our home in Arapahoe around 7pm...what a day! I told Elliot that I am going to put this story in Adellyn's baby book and that we will look back and laugh about it some day.

Halloween pictures

Here are some good pictures from Halloween. These are from Connie's camera.

a couple stories

Last night I thought of something I forgot to include in my update. I'm sure I've mentioned before how observant Landen is, and this proves it. For the last few weeks he has been going into my room to play. He climbs up onto the bench in front of my mirror where I fix my hair and put on my make-up (when I actually wear it). He has watched me enough times that he knows what to do with a lot of the stuff I have sitting out. He bushes his hair with my brush, brushes his face with my make-up brush, "puts on" or eats chap stick, pretends to spray my B&BW body sprays and hair sprays and the whole time he jabbers on about something. When he "sprays" something, he make the sound effect... ssss ssss sssss. He usually makes a mess, so I try to keep him out, but he is pretty sneaky. He almost always throws a fit when I take him out and shut the door.

One other cute thing Landen has started doing is kissing the baby...my belly. He likes to kiss it over and over again. I wonder if he will kiss the baby or my belly after the baby comes!

another update

part of the cradle that Elliot is building







Landen being goofy while eating theatre popcorn








Landen sitting with the pumpkins that I grew...they were suppose to be pie pumpkins, but they got really big. Notice the green one has Landen's name in it. I scratched it in when the pumpkin was small and the skin was thin and it scarred it...we used to do that when I was a kid.




playing with his food









trying to climb out of the high chair...and showing off for the camera










Landen was a puppy for Halloween. I tried to paint his face, but all I managed to get was his nose and he wiped it off before we left the house.
I'll try to get some better pictures posted later when I get them from Connie and my Mom.

















We haven't done a whole lot since my last post. We made it to see one of Justina's volleyball games on the 9th. Landen was really good and he enjoyed getting to play with Sutton after the game. A couple weeks later Landen and I went with my parents to see Jerome's last home football game. I didn't get to watch much of the game because I had to chase Landen, but it was a good game from what I could watch. (By the way, Justina and Jerome are my cousins and both are seniors this year. Dexter, Jerome's little brother, is a freshman this year and he has gotten a lot of playing time this year. He'll be fun to watch as he goes through high school.)

I have been trying to get a lot of stuff done before the baby comes...which is coming up pretty quick! I have had Connie come over to help me do some canning a couple of times. We did plum and cherry jellies a couple of weeks ago and the other day we canned tomato soup and juice. I'm so glad to get the 9 gallons of tomatoes out of my freezer! I had a very productive garden again this year. In fact, I have so many jars of canned tomatoes (soup, juice and whole) that I am only going to grow a couple of plants next year for eating and sharing...no canning! I still have several gallon bags of bell peppers in my freezer, but they are useful in cooking. Elliot knows how to make his pepper jelly now, so he might use them for that later this fall or winter. As far as my "to do before baby list" goes, I still have a couple sewing projects to take of, but I enjoy sewing...getting it done during Landen's naps is a different story. That explains my lack of updates.

The only really big thing we have done since my last post is we went to Lincoln last weekend. Elliot had a dentist appointment and we used the trip to buy that last things we needed before the baby comes and to do the majority of our Christmas shopping. Yes, that's right, Christmas shopping in October. We decided trying to get it done with a 17 month wild child and a newborn would not be easy or fun, so we did it early. Anything else we need to get will have to be done online.

Well, that's all I can think of to post about this time. At the rate I am going, I probably won't post anything (expect maybe more Halloween pictures) until after the baby is born. Enjoy these nice days we have been having, they may not last long.

Never slowing down!

Trying out crayons for the first time.











Landen decided to climb the ladder with uncle Adam to help him decorate for the wedding reception.








Sutton and Landen were entertaining everyone with their dance moves at Adam and Kayla's wedding reception.






Sutton and Landen enjoying a sucker at Rail Fest in North Platte.









Karen and I decided to have the boys' faces painted. Sutton had the same thing painted on his face, but he smeared it almost right away.






Landen was enjoying cartoons one morning while I was getting ready to go to the doctor.







Landen watched Daddy put some spices in the pizza dough last weekend, so he thought he needed to add some more. He is going to be a good little helper in the kitchen!









Sometimes Landen will disappear to his room and will be very quiet and this is what I usually find when I go to check on him. He loves to just look at his books. When I sit down to try to read some of them, he closes the book or runs off to play with something else.








As I have mentioned in the past, Landen loves playing in the water. He was drinking the water as it came out of the drain holes in my planters on the deck. He had actually done this several time over the summer, I finally just got a picture of it.







Our Schwan's man always gives Landen a sheet of stickers to play with, so Landen and Daddy were being silly and putting them on their noses.





It's been a while since my last actual update, so I had to read it again to see if Landen is doing anything new. He has learned a new sign, please. It only took a day of me showing and helping him do it to figure it out and remember it. It really helped that I had some chips that he likes and he kept leading me to them and pointing and grunting...so I took the opportunity to teach him the sign for please. He also has a few new words. He says quack (cack) any time he sees something that looks like a duck (or bird). Elliot taught him monkey and owl. He puts his hands up to his arm pits and says ooo ooo for the monkey. The only time he will do the owl is when he wants to look at this pop up book he has that the eyes move on the owl. He is totally fascinated by that and pulls the book off the shelf while saying who who over and over again. I have also heard him say cracker (cacka). When I ask him to say please and thank you, he kind of says the words as he signs. One thing he says that I forgot to mention last time is he counts two, three. We can't get him to say one, though and we have been working on four and five. I just thought of another word I forgot last time...he says hello anytime he gets to play with a phone...toy or real. He has finally started saying hi (I thought he would say hi before a lot of other words). He finally realized the reaction he can get from people when he says hi, so as we walk through the grocery store, he will say it over and over. He is such a flirt!

September 19th, 20th and 21st was a busy weekend. Friday evening we helped with the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Landen got to play with Kayla's nephews who are 2 and 8 months older than him. He had a lot of fun chasing and copying them. On Saturday morning, I took Landen to Beaver City to watch the Eager Beaver Days parade. We got home a little before noon, ate lunch and then Landen took a nap. Later that afternoon, we went to the church for Adam and Kayla's wedding. From there we went to the reception in Holbrook for supper and the dance. We left around 10:15 and I'm pretty sure that Landen was asleep before we were out of Holbrook. He did not want to have his clothes changed when we got home, but we managed to get him into a dry diaper and pjs. Sunday we had decided to go to North Platte for Rail Fest at Cody Park. We met my cousin there since she lives in North Platte. We rode a minature train and toured a real train that they turned into a museum. We rode a few rides they have at Cody Park. As you can see in the picture above, Landen got his face painted like a puppy. We all had a lot of fun and Landen slept all the way home. The following Tuesday afternoon, I took Landen to a friend's house to play with her son and the kids she babysits. We didn't stay long becuse she had a couple extra kids that day and her son was crabby and needed a nap. The next day I went to Elwood in the afternoon because my photographer was having an open house and doing free mini sessions and a free 8x10 from that session. The next evening we went to McCook because I had an eye appointment. This past week was less eventful. I'm not going to complain about that. Saturday we went to my parents' house in the afternoon. Landen and I rode in the tractor with my Dad for a little while, then we went to town to get the stuff my Mom bought at the auction for all the left over stuff from the Beaver City elementary. (Incase you didn't know, Southern Valley built an elementary connecting to the jr/sr high school which open in 1995...when I was a 7th grader. BC, Oxford and Orleans all closed their doors to students and teachers for the last time this year...sad) We stayed at my parents' house to watch the Husker game and Landen spent the night with them. Sunday morning, Elliot got up early to go to GI to get some more wood to finish the cradle that he is building. I stayed home and slept in and then worked on a sewing project. It was so much more fun with my new sewing machine. I had been using my Great Grandma's machine which is more than twice my age and is practically and antique! After Elliot got home, we ate lunch at his parents' house and then went to pick up Landen. I keep wondering what it would be like if I were teaching and then I think I'm glad I get to be a stay at home mom! I'm scared to think about how busy we will be when we have teenagers in sports and other activities and by then I will be teaching again. I'm glad that's a few years away!

funny video

Here is a cute video of Landen playing with a Halloween jack-in-the-box. The funny thing is that this was the third or fourth time he played it and it still made him jump. He actually acts scared of it now. He starts it and runs away, then he'll turn around and watch and he still jumps when the cat pops out. It makes me laugh every time!

I'll post more pictures (including some from Adam and Kayla's wedding reception) later. Hopefully I will get that done before the end of the weekend.

I forgot something

I had so much that I needed to say in my last post, I inevitably forgot something. Landen had a pretty significant first August 22. He spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Becker's house without Mom and Dad for the first time! We decided that since he will be staying with them while I am in the hospital, he needed a practice run before hand. They picked him up on their way home from GI and it happened to be about his bedtime, so he was good and sleepy. My Mom said they played for a while when they got home and then they put him to bed and he went to sleep as quickly and easily as he does at home. They also had him most of the next day. I don't think he ever really acted like he missed us and when my parents brought him home, he acted like he didn't want to have anything to do with me. I thought that it would be nice not having him here for a day, but I was actually bored. I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. Luckily Elliot and I were busy that morning or would have missed Landen even more. We are going to have to have him stay there again before the baby comes. Hopefully things will settle down once the wedding is over.

15 months old

playing with empty wine bottles. He often drags these out and carries them around









playing with Daddy's glasses...again. He just climbed up there and sat down...what a little monkey!











Daddy built tunnels with couch cushions and Landen had fun crawling through them







Licking the lid clean from a salad.
















Daddy and Landen watching Play House Disney one Saturday morning.







Mommy and Landen had a long day and fell asleep in the rocking chair. This was a rare event.






Jack Rodenbaugh is entering Landen and Taylor Blickenstaff.








Video 1 is a short video of Landen's favorite thing to do when I run the washing machine. You can hear his head bouncing on the door as the washer runs the spin cycle. Video 2 is about a month old, but it is cute video of Landen dancing and singing with some music Elliot had on.

Even though the dog days of summer have not been as hot as usual, they sure have been busy. We have had something going on almost every weekend in the last month. One of those Saturdays, Landen and I went to Kearney with my Mom and Grandma to find a dress for Grandma to wear to Adam's wedding coming up this weekend. (That is the reason we have been busy for a couple of those weekends.) During the week, I have been running after Landen even more now that he runs more than he walks. Now that I have reached my third trimester of pregnancy, I have been more tired and I feel like I have not been getting as much done as I should. (for example; my kitchen is a mess more often than it is clean and Landen been known to find a snack of toast or Cheerios that didn't get picked up after breakfast...oh well!) I feel like I fight a losing battle because just as soon and I clean something up, it is a mess again before the day is even over. I have a feeling it will only get worse when the baby comes in two months.

Landen is growing so fast. I'm just going to go through some of things he does now. One of the things I forgot to mention in my last post is that he likes to blow the crumbs of his toast around on his tray. Another thing he does while eating toast is pull the crust off. Sometimes he will eat it and other times he will leave it on the tray. He can be a picky eater one day and will eat anything the next. It seems like he doesn't eat meat very well, though. I hope that changes since he comes from a beef eating family! Another thing that he is picky about is that he has to have a fork or spoon when he eats. I don't discourage that at all and he is getting very good at using them. He even tries to pick up crackers with a fork. He does have some favorite foods that I can count on him eating when he won't eat anything else. He loves yogurt of any flavor, so I always stock up when it is on sale. He also discovered that he likes my chocolate malt-o-meal that I have for breakfast sometimes. He finally decided that he likes peaches and pears and will sometimes eat a whole 15oz can by himself.

Recently, Landen has figured out how to go down stairs on his own. I'm not so sure I'm really happy about that because I used to be able to leave him on the deck and know that he couldn't get down. Now he is off the deck before I reach the garden. It's really scary out front because he runs straight into the street and since we live so close to the school, there is a lot of traffic during certain times of the day. I'm trying to teach him to stay out of the street, but he thinks it's a game. Landen has also start whistling. I have heard him do it several times in the last three months, but it was mostly accidental when he was trying to blow on his pin wheel, but recently he has been whistling on purpose. He laughs at us when we whistle and then sometimes he will do it. He is very independent and he won't do what you ask him to do unless he wants to, especially when it comes to giving kisses. He also grabs our fingers and leads us to do something for him and gets very mad if we won't do what he wants or can't figure out what he wants. If he doesn't lead us somewhere, he brings things to us. He usually brings me his container of graham crackers or a plastic bottle to open. I pretend I don't know what he wants me to do with the bottle and he will grab my hand and put on the lid. As soon as I unscrew the lid he gets really excited and takes it from me to play with. That just reminded of another thing he just figured out. He can now use a straw to drink from a cup.

Also in the last month, Landen has had another molar come in. This last one made him really sick with diarrhea for about 4 days. It was really bad for two days with horrible diaper rash, and after that it was not as runny and the diaper rash was clearing up.

I'm going to finish with a list of words that he says (at least once) at 15 months (some of these he has been saying for a while): up, horsey, boo, nigh nigh, da da/daddy, um, mom, uh oh, yee haw, read (I think), open, ow, yay, I did it (I'm sure that is what he says anyway. It is in context because he says it when he stacks his blocks together and claps for himself.)
animal sounds: horse (eeeee), dog (pu pu pu), cow (mbooo), pig (he kind of snorts...we are teaching him to snort instead of oink)
signs: milk, more, done eating/finished (this one is funny because he just waves his arms as hard as he can), thank you, and blows kisses

First hair cut

Playing with Daddy.







Landon Christenson and Landen.










Sutton and Landen





























Before, during and after pictures of Landen's hair cut.




Landen helped himself to Cheetos all evening Saturday night.









I haven't posted anything in a while for a couple reasons. One; I've been lazy, and two; I hadn't taken any pictures for a while. We haven't really done a lot since my last post. We have gone to the pool only a couple time lately because it has not been really hot and I just didn't think the water would feel as good. Either that or Landen's nap schedule didn't work with going to the pool. I still walk down town almost everyday to get my mail and/or groceries. It's about 6 blocks one way, so the walk is a good distance. I am sometimes pretty tired by the time I get home, especially if I get a lot of groceries. Last Friday, the 8th, I went to Lincoln with Connie and Larry. I had a lot of shopping I needed to do and we picked up some stuff for the new baby. Landen was really good and he even ate good. (he doesn't always eat good when we are away from home.) This past Friday, Elliot, Landen and I went to Kearney mostly to get out of town. Saturday was a busy day. In the morning we went to Kayla's bridal shower. Kayla is going to be my sister-in-law in September. That afternoon, she gave Landen his first hair cut. After his hair cut, he got to play with Kayla's nephews, Landon and Spencer. Landon is 2 months older than Landen and Spencer is 8 months older. That evening we went to a 50th birthday party for Mike and Patty Roskop. They own the dairy in Beaver City and I worked there feeding calves the first summer they were here. Both Mike and Patty turned 50 this month. Today we just stayed home and relaxed. My parents had to come to Arapahoe to get together with Kayla's family to do some wedding planning, so they stopped to see us before going home. Adam and Kayla also stopped by for a little while. Landen was really wound up and was showing off for Grandma and Grandpa. A couple of days ago he started trying to jump. Once he got both feet off the ground, but usually it's just one foot or just his heels! Today he discovered that he can walk backwards. He has walked backwards before, but only on accident. Today he was walking in circles in reverse!

Landen or Linus

I don't know how many of you get to see Landen regularly, but if you have seen him lately, you have probably seen him carrying his blanket and sucking his thumb just like Linus. His thumb seems to be a permanent attachment to his face anymore. He also throws a fit when I try to take his blanket away to get him to eat or play with other toys. His does have a back up blanket, but he prefers the white one. I do manage to sneak it into the wash about once a week...and it definitely needs it!


There's not much new around here. We did get to go to the lake again on Sunday. Landen really enjoyed the boat ride this time and he also got to swim a little. Here he is in the water with Grandpa.

I hope every one is staying cool...I'm looking at the thermometer now and it is 101 degrees at 10:43 in the morning. I might have to go to the pool today!

Norton Fair

Here are some good pictures from the Norton Fair tonight. The two girls in the pictures with Landen are my cousins. It worked out great to have them take him on the rides that I am too big to go on, but he is to small to go on alone. He had a lot of fun on the rides. He gets antsy while waiting for the ride to start, but once it gets going he really enjoys the ride. I think that he will have even more fun next year.

Fair and more

Landen was being silly at supper time.







Landen decided to climb into the sink after lunch to be cleaned up.








This is my cherry tomato 'bush'. I put a shovel next to it to give a little perspective to how big it is. The middle picture shows how the tomatoes look like a bunch of grapes. My plants got pretty big last year, but not this big.



Landen dumped his fruit puffs all over the floor and then laid down in the middle of them to eat them. (Erin, this reminded me of the picture you had of the triplets when they got into the puffs!)






Messy lunch!











Fun at the Fair!




We have had a busy couple of weeks since my last post. Friday the 11th, we ran to McCook after Elliot got home from work. Saturday morning I went to Norton to a baby shower. From about noon on I was in Beaver City helping with the rodeo queen contest. That evening I helped my mom with the harvest meal. Sunday evening we went back down to my parents' house for the harvest meal and so that Landen could get a ride in the combine before they were done with harvest. Tuesday evening, Connie and I canned four batches of apricot jam. It has been a good year for apricots. It has been several years since the trees around here haven't froze, so we have been taking all the apricots that we can get. Wednesday I had to help with open class entries at the fair as I have done for the last few years. I also took several things to enter. I went home in the afternoon and I was able to take a nap before going back for the carnival rides. For those of you who may not know, Furnas County has a home owned carnival and only local people run the rides and games. Landen enjoyed a few rides. He went on the carousel, kiddy swings, super slide (several times) and the Ferris wheel. Thursday it started raining before the events for the evening started, but since the grand stand event was the rodeo, the show went on. We went down for a while even though it was sprinkling the whole time. After we had been there a while, I realized that I had forgotten to put Landen's sippy in the diaper bag, so we had to leave early. Friday morning we left for Lawrence, KS to go to my cousin's wedding. We were there all weekend and drove home on Sunday. We had an incident on Saturday. Elliot and I did a little shopping in the morning before going to my aunt and uncle's house for brunch. Shortly before arriving at the house, Landen fell asleep and when we were getting out of the van (we drove my Grandma's van and she rode along) we talked about driving around for a while to let Landen sleep. We decided not to go anywhere and continued getting out of the van. I reached for the door lock to unlock the rest of the doors and heard it click and I thought Elliot hit the unlock on the remote, so I shut my door. Elliot's door was already shut and I heard him say "oh shit." I then found out that he left the key in the ignition and the click I heard was actually the doors locking! Yes, we locked Landen in the van with the windows tightly closed and it was probably 90 degrees or warmer plus the humidity made it feel even hotter. We didn't have the spare key so we tried a coat hanger for a little while. I finally just told my aunt to call the lock smith. Everyone there kept asking me if I was ok...I was perfectly fine. I knew the lock smith was on the way, Landen was still asleep and panicking or freaking out would not have made things any better so I stayed pretty relaxed. Landed did wake up a few minutes before the lock smith got there, but I just peeked in the window at him and he thought it was a game and was laughing. He was sweaty when we got him out, but didn't have a clue about what went on. Later that day we got to the chapel for the wedding and the doors were locked and they couldn't find any of the people with keys to unlock it. We finally got in about the time the wedding was supposed to start. It was stressful at the time, but I think they will look back and laugh at the whole day later on. This week we have been to the pool a couple of times. Wednesday night I went to my parents' house so that my mom and I could can some of the beans that I grew in my garden. Thursday I went to Norton for a doctor appointment. The baby is doing great. We also had an ultrasound today. The baby was very active during the ultrasound. He/She was sucking his/her thumb and grabbing his/her toes and the cord. It was pretty cute. That just made me more anxious for the baby to get here (of course that means it will be cold out and I hate cold weather). (NO, we are not finding out the sex of the baby.) I will try to scan the ultrasound pictures to post. They don't scan too well, so it may not work.